131: Chapter 131 ICCM Gold Award Announcement

After the cooperation agreement between the Low Entropy Workshop and Hengtai leaked out, before Hengtai's initial engineering coordination fee had even gone through its long and bloated financial approval process, public opinion outside exploded first.

The capital circle's reaction this time was even more direct.

Several top venture capital institutions in China dispatched partner-level figures to enter the field almost simultaneously.

Bypassing the routine preliminary screening by project investment managers and the lengthy pre-procedures for due diligence, they contacted Liang Zhixia through various channels at almost the exact same time.

For two full days, Liang Zhixia's cell phone and email were in a state of high-load operation bordering on paralysis.

Those capital tycoons who usually looked down from above and nitpicked entrepreneurs offered terms that were dazzlingly generous at this moment.

"President Liang, I am Wang Kai from RedMap Capital. As long as Jiang Lin nods, we can skip looking at the financial models, skip the early earnings forecasts, and even forgo detailed business plans from you, directly issuing a term sheet. You can propose the valuation range first, and we can enter the TS directly."

"Zhixia, listen to me. Right now in the market, the story of hard technology combined with a genius founder is the scarcest target. The current popularity of the Low Entropy Workshop is priceless. As long as you open up Series A, even if it's just conceding five percent of the shares, I guarantee the funds will be wired into your corporate account next week."

Some people even pulled layers of connections through Jiangda University alumni, attempting to bypass the public email of the Low Entropy Workshop and arrange a dinner directly in front of Jiang Lin.

A well-known angel investor renowned in the industry for ruthless tactics actually ran over to Jiangda University's Matter Wave Cafe in person and sat there for an entire afternoon, just to have a three-minute chance encounter with Jiang Lin on the road.

To capital, the person of Jiang Lin himself was far more valuable than the hexapod robot he was currently making.

An eighteen-year-old Gaokao top scorer, a mathematical genius who single-handedly overturned half a century of conjectures in the discrete geometry community, now wearing the halo of a hard-tech entrepreneur—a story stacking attributes of IQ and dimensional-reduction strikes was, in the current capital market, the top-tier script with the highest monetization potential.

They didn't care at all whether G-01 could walk steadily right now; they only cared whether they could use money to buy a ticket to board the ship before this myth completely took shape.

However, facing this torrent of capital that was sufficient to drown any startup, Liang Zhixia displayed extraordinary composure, blocking back all probings laced with the scent of money.

There was no beating around the bush, no ambiguous prevarication, and no polite phrasing leaving room for the future.

Liang Zhixia had Qiu Yue change the automatic reply for all emails to a uniform sentence, which was also her only response when answering external phone calls.

[Low Entropy Workshop is not accepting financing negotiations at this stage.]

This sentence was like a basin of ice water poured directly over the heads of the fanatical capital circle.

Some people thought they didn't know what was good for them, while others thought this was deliberate hunger marketing to drive up valuations. But no matter how the outside world guessed, that not-so-spacious door of the Low Entropy Workshop remained tightly shut, declining all visitors.

On the other hand, starkly different from the straightforward and naked fanaticism of the capital circle, the reaction of the mathematics community appeared complex, heavy, and even tinged with a trace of lingering pain.

The heat surrounding Jiangs Brick might have been overshadowed by new entertainment news in the public eye, but in academia, far from completely subsiding, this heat was continuing to ferment.

Although Jiang Lin's paper on single-tile aperiodic tiling was still merely hanging on preprint websites, the frequency with which it was downloaded, forwarded, cited in seminars, and discussed in internal reading groups was climbing upwards along a steep curve.

Many scholars studying quasicrystals, aperiodic ordered structures, and related dynamical systems began to realize that it was difficult for them to bypass that construction and verification framework.

In domestic universities, quite a few people were still waiting for Jiang Lin to continue speaking out on the subsequent forced structure, finite-state verification, and tiling space classification of Jiangs Brick.

In their view, Jiangs Brick was merely an entrance; after pushing open that door lay an entire virgin land filled with startling mathematical beauty.

Meanwhile, in the smaller, higher-threshold inner circle of the Additive Combinatorics direction, they cared about weak doubling. During his special report on Jiangs Brick at the ICM, the youth had made a prospect and once told everyone that there was a path there.

Countless people in the circle suffered from insomnia because of this, trying to follow the direction pointed out by the youth to find that secret path leading to PFR.

Yet unexpectedly, before the path mentioned by the youth was even seen, G-01 and the Low Entropy Workshop suddenly burst into the public's view with an overbearing posture.

After a brief astonishment, another kind of voice began to uncontrollably emerge across major forums, communication groups, and internal seminars within the mathematics community.

"Is he planning to change careers and start a business?"

"So young, having just displayed astonishing intuition in the field of pure mathematics, is he going to be dragged into the quagmire by that capital reeking of copper?"

"After Jiangs Brick, instead of continuing to deeply mine the tiling space, he goes to make robots instead. Isn't this an egregious waste of heavenly treasures? After all, when it comes to the engineering problems of robots, there are tens of thousands of outstanding engineers all over the world who can solve them. But as for someone who can reach his level in aperiodic tiling, only one has appeared in half a century."

"We shouldn't judge it so extremely either. If that G-01's underlying gait algorithm and motion control were truly deduced by himself, it shows that his talent in applied mathematics and cybernetics is equally astonishing. Being able to land theory into an entity is in itself an extremely remarkable achievement."

"Achievement is achievement, but human energy is ultimately a zero-sum game. A genius's brain is also made of flesh, and time is even constant. If he really saw the path to clearing PFR, but now turns around to run a commercial company that needs to wrangle with supply chains, investors, and clients every day, this is definitely an incalculable loss for the entire mathematics community."

...

These words circulated within the circle. They did not form open malicious attacks, and what leaked out was mostly regret.

Professor Gu Nanzhou naturally also saw these uproarious discussions.

At first, he didn't pay attention.

As someone who understood the internet ecosystem reasonably well, he knew that external voices often mixed with too much noise.

Some people were truly out of regret for academia, while others were merely letting jealousy prompt them to make a fuss over an issue.

Some people didn't even understand what the proof of Jiangs Brick had ultimately resolved; relying purely on the words "mathematical genius goes into entrepreneurship," they automatically pieced together a fallen story in their minds that was eye-catching enough and had enough dramatic conflict.

However, when similar discussions appeared more and more densely in those internal communication groups that truly carried academic weight, Professor Gu Nanzhou finally couldn't sit still anymore.

He couldn't help forwarding his anxiety to Professor Han Yanshan.

After the message was sent out, more than ten minutes later, Professor Han Yanshan replied with a sentence.

"I don't dare judge it like that."

Professor Gu Nanzhou looked at these six characters and frowned slightly.

"What don't you dare judge? Whether he will leave mathematics because he can't withstand the temptation, or whether this muddy water will drown out his spiritual aura?"

This time, Professor Han Yanshan replied very slowly, as if deliberating over every single word.

"I dare not judge how far apart he has truly separated the two fields of mathematics and robots."

Professor Gu Nanzhou could roughly guess why Professor Han Yanshan said that.

In the eyes of the vast majority of people, Jiangs Brick was mathematics, G-01 was a robot, and the Low Entropy Workshop was a company.

The three belonged to different worlds.

One belonged to papers, theorems, and peer reviews.

One belonged to motors, sensors, and mud and gravel.

One belonged to contracts, cash flow, and legal boundaries.

Ordinary people would choose one among these three worlds as an anchor to make a living, and survive within it by following established rules.

Yet on Jiang Lin himself, the most unsettling thing was precisely that, it seemed from the very beginning, he hadn't thought about problems according to this conventional classification method of human society.

Professor Han Yanshan reviewed all of Jiang Lin's achievements up to now.

In Jiangs Brick, local rules forced out global structures.

In G-01, foot-end contact forced out the support phase.

In PFR, weak doubling constraints forced out approximate structures.

In the eyes of outsiders, these things were far apart from each other.

But Professor Han Yanshan's academic intuition vaguely captured that, within Jiang Lin's cognitive dimension, they might all just be different projections of the same class of problems.

After a long while, Professor Han Yanshan sent another sentence: "Actually, I only worry about one thing right now."

"What thing?" Professor Gu Nanzhou immediately asked further.

"Whether his time is enough."

Indeed, time was limited, and Jiang Lin was also human; it was not impossible for him to be dragged down by reality.

A startup company required precise operations, an epoch-making robot required tens of thousands of boring tests, the funds on the company's books needed to maintain healthy liquidity, and every contract signed with a large enterprise like Hengtai needed to be reviewed and vetted word by word.

Once the commercial machine of the Low Entropy Workshop, which had just been ignited and started up, began to operate, it would be like an endlessly hungry behemoth, continuously devouring the founder's already precious attention and mental resources.

And that path of the PFR was never something that could be walked through just by a flash of inspiration while taking a bath.

For breakthroughs in pure mathematics, after having the guidance of a genius's intuition, what followed was years and years of maddeningly boring proof labor.

That required large chunks of uninterrupted, deep-thinking time.

Right now, no one yet knew how Jiang Lin would ultimately choose.

Opening up human academic history, this long river has never lacked meteoric, dazzling geniuses, nor has it lacked those who changed course halfway through for various reasons.

Some were dragged away by complicated administrative duties after achieving success and renown, becoming academic bureaucrats.

Some people are tempted by massive commercial interests and turn to embrace capital.

Some are weighed down by premature fame, getting lost amidst endless speeches and flowers.

Still more simply have their edge ground down by the mundane realities of daily life.

The path of pure mathematics is inherently too narrow, too cold, and too lonely.

It requires extremely long-delayed gratification and makes it exceptionally difficult to produce immediate worldly returns.

Now, a young man who has just caused a sensation in the global mathematics community at the age of eighteen has suddenly registered a company, recruited people, built hexapod robots, and discussed cooperation with mining equipment enterprises.

It is hard for onlookers not to let their imaginations run wild: will this youth abandon the temple of pure mathematics forever?

Will he simply treat mathematics as a tool to monetize his talent, as a sufficiently pretty and gimmicky starting point, and then turn away without hesitation, plunging headfirst into the industrial and commercial battlefields that are livelier, more lucrative, and easier for the secular public to see?

Just as the outside world's doubts, regrets, and guesses were buzzing and surging like an undercurrent, Jiang Lin's phone suddenly vibrated.

The number on the screen had no remarks, and the location was shown as Beijing.

Jiang Lin picked it up and answered.

"Hello."

The other end of the phone fell silent for a fraction of a second.

Then, a voice with a slight southern accent came through.

"Is this Jiang Lin?"

"I am Jiang Lin."

"I am Shing-Tung Yau."

Jiang Lin was slightly stunned.

The name Shing-Tung Yau is an inescapable peak in the Chinese mathematics community and even the global field of differential geometry.

In Jiang Lin's memory, it was actually page after page of worn-out notes inside a Wasteland Stone House.

The proof ideas of the Calabi conjecture, the exquisite derivations of the Yau estimate, the evolution of Ricci curvature on manifolds, profound complex geometry, and the vast and magnificent positive mass theorem...

Those mathematical concepts in geometric analysis that were as cold, hard, and indestructible as sedimentary rock layers had once accompanied him through countless moments on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, the name that only existed in distant academic halls and his own Wasteland memories suddenly transformed into a real, tangible voice on the phone.

The old man on the other end of the phone did not have any superfluous pleasantries.

"Jiang Lin, I am now officially notifying you of something in my capacity as the chairman of the prize committee for The 9th International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians."

Jiang Lin listened quietly.

"Through the deliberation and final vote of the congress's independent review committee, The 9th International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians has decided to award you the Morningside Medal of Mathematics Gold Award."

The Morningside Medal of Mathematics Gold Award is called by many the fields medal of the Chinese mathematics community.

The old man's voice paused slightly on the other end of the phone, seemingly leaving Jiang Lin time to react.

Then, he slightly slowed down his speaking pace and recited a brief yet extremely weighty citation in a solemn tone.

"In recognition of your groundbreaking contributions to the single-tile aperiodic tiling problem. The committee unanimously believes that the proof you provided not only ended the core inquiry lasting half a century surrounding a single aperiodic tiling prototile since Penrose tiling, but more crucially, the locally forced structures, finite-state verification framework, and boundary compression methods you innovatively introduced in this process have also provided highly forward-looking new mathematical tools for quasicrystal models, aperiodic ordered structures, and computable tiling theory."

The amount of information contained in these words was immense, with every single phrase representing the recognition of Jiang Lin's work by top minds in the international mathematical community.

"Thank you, Mr. Qiu, thank you, The 9th International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians." Jiang Lin said.

The voice on the other end of the phone did not fluctuate at all because of his overly calm reaction, as if it were long accustomed to the extraordinary neural circuits of scholars.

"According to the tradition and nomination rules since the establishment of the Morningside Award, the entire selection process adopts a back-to-back model. We do not accept any form of application by individuals or institutions, nor do we have so-called defense or interview sessions."

The old man continued to explain methodically.

"All judgments are based solely on your publicly published achievements in the field of mathematics. Therefore, it is normal that you had no idea beforehand that you had entered the review process or even become a final candidate for the gold award, and you do not need to be surprised."

"Okay, I understand the necessity of this mechanism."

"Now, you have received official verbal notification from the review committee. However, I must solemnly remind you that you still need to strictly fulfill your confidentiality obligations before the list of winners is officially announced to the outside world at the opening ceremony of the congress on July 31st."

"You cannot tell any media or journalists."

"You cannot tell the school you attend or any related administrative departments."

"Even, you cannot tell your family."

Jiang Lin's eyes flickered slightly.

This rule sounded almost inhumane.

To receive such a high honor yet have to remain silent in front of the people closest to you was like walking in brocaded garments at night.

But a little thought would reveal that this was neither personal arrogance targeting him nor a prankish affectation by the review committee.

The reason why the operating mechanism of this award itself was set to be so strict was precisely to bypass that set of traditional academic administrative evaluation systems.

Once the list of winners entered the university administrative and promotional systems in advance, what would follow would not just be congratulations, but also rushing out press releases, school endorsements, department communications, resource coordination, and various habitual operations turning personal honors into institutional achievements.

The originally pure mathematical honor would immediately be alienated into a pledge of allegiance for various parties to compete for interests.

The strict confidentiality agreement of the Morningside Award itself is actually a sturdy firewall.

Its only purpose for existence is to isolate the omnipresent worldly sophistication and administrative power interference in the academic world.

Under this mechanism, the list of winners truly belongs to the public world only at the moment it is officially read aloud by the chairman of the review committee at the opening ceremony under the flashlights.

And during the long time before that, it is only allowed to exist in the locked filing cabinets of the review committee and in the mind of the winner himself.

"I will strictly abide by this rule." Jiang Lin solemnly made the promise.

"Good, since you are a sensible person, I won't talk nonsense. Next, I need you to arrive in Nanjing on July 30th. But before that, the staff of the congress organizing committee will contact you through your public email and mobile phone number to coordinate specific flight information and hotel travel arrangements. Outwardly, your name is merely a participant invited to attend The 9th International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians. Do not hint at your award-winning identity in advance on any public or private occasion to cause unnecessary ripples."

"Understood."

After the official business regarding the award was settled, the previously tense atmosphere on the other end of the phone seemed to ease a little.

Unconsciously, expectations from a senior to a junior leaked into the old man's voice.

"In addition, according to custom, the opening ceremony will invite the winners of the Morningside Award to take the stage to receive the award and give a speech. You need to prepare a brief speech in advance."

"Is there a specific time limit?"

Hearing this extremely pragmatic rhetorical question, the old man on the other end of the phone seemed to have a lot more smiles.

"Within three minutes," the old man said slowly, "the ultimate beauty of mathematics lies in its simplicity and impeccability. We leave those intricate logical deductions and difficult calculations in the papers. The time you spend standing on stage is very precious; only say the most core words, and do not waste them on hypocritical thanks."

"Okay, I know how to say it."

After the call ended, the room fell quiet again.

Early the next morning, while eating breakfast, Jiang Lin spoke up: "Dad, Mom, I'm going to Nanjing on the 30th. There's a mathematical society inviting me to attend."

Zhang Xiufen was stunned for a moment.

"Why is it a mathematical society again?"

"Mm."

Bound by the confidentiality agreement, Jiang Lin didn't say much more.

"How many days are you going for?" Zhang Xiufen sat down opposite Jiang Lin, looking with concern at her son's somewhat thinned face.

During this period, Jiang Lin stayed up late almost every day for the company and the robot matters; she saw it in her eyes and felt the ache in her heart.

"It won't be long. The 31st is the opening ceremony, and the specific itinerary for the next few days depends on the arrangements of the organizing committee. I'll come back when it's over."

"Do you need Mom and Dad to accompany you?" Zhang Xiufen put down her chopsticks.

Although her son was a genius, in her eyes he was still just a newly adult child. Going out of town alone to attend a congress full of great scholars, she was always afraid he wouldn't take good care of himself.

"It's just a meeting that lasts a bit longer, no need to trouble yourselves, I can handle it alone."

Jiang Lin mused.

Zhang Xiufen was obviously still somewhat anxious, sizing up the T-shirt Jiang Lin had been wearing for a long time up and down.

"You're going to a meeting out of town, should you bring a more formal set of clothes? Don't be like that math meeting last time, just throwing on a worn-out short-sleeve shirt and going up."

"Alright, then I'll bring a collared shirt." Jiang Lin did not refute his mother's good intentions.

"Then after I finish eating later, I'll quickly find it out and iron it, fold it into the suitcase so it doesn't get wrinkled." Zhang Xiufen breathed a sigh of relief at this and began to worry about the trivial matters of packing luggage.

Jiang Jianguo, who had not spoken all this time, seeing that his wife had said almost enough, also added: "When you are away from home, eat well and live well. Don't be too thrifty and wrong yourself."